Box Score SPARKILL, N.Y. (Dec. 12, 2015) – Juniors
Jaylen Morris (Amherst, N.Y.) and
Charlie Marquardt (Rockaway Beach, N.Y.) had Molloy ahead by as many as 13 points on Saturday (Dec. 12) against Saint Thomas Aquinas before the Spartans rallied back for a 76-74 win at Aquinas Hall. The Lions fall to 2-6 overall and 1-1 in ECC play this season while STAC is now 6-3 and 2-1 in conference competition for the year.
The Lions started the first half down by three after a quick treble from freshmen Jonathan Lawton (Williamstown, N.J.) in the first 23 seconds of action for Saint Thomas Aquinas. Seniors
Kevin Bowles (Wantagh, N.Y.) and
Brandon Williams (Baldwin, N.Y.) quickly put the maroon and white ahead with a three-ball and two-pointer, respectively two minutes into the opening frame. Williams also helped the Lions erase an 8-5 deficit by dishing a perfect pass to freshman
Chris O'Reilly (Colts Neck, N.J.), who knocked down a trey with 16:31 remaining. After sophomore center Sam Berlin (Manassas, Va.) put the Spartans back on top 10-8 just seconds later, Marquardt began to fire on all cylinders. The sharpshooter rained down back-to-back three-pointers as Molloy took a 14-10 edge with 13 minutes to play in the half. STAC, though, found an answer in sophomore guard Ross Greenfield (Dix Hills, N.Y.), who hit consecutive jumpers to bring the Spartans closer at 16-14 until a quick three from
Curtis Jenkins (Farmingdale, N.Y.) had the Lions up five with 11 minutes and change to go.
Later in the half, Marquardt set off a personal 5-0 run in a stretch of two minutes to give the maroon and white a 26-20 lead with 5:47 remaining. The defending ECC regular season champs kept on fighting as a 6-0 Spartans rally leveled the score at 26-all with four-and-a-half minutes left in the first frame. The two sides then traded leads all the way to a 33-33 score before senior center
Chucks Obunse (St. Albans, N.Y.) converted two free throws and Morris ended the half with a lay-up and a dunk at the buzzer. The six-point spurt gave the visitors a 39-33 lead going into the locker room after one half of action.
Molloy started the second half on a tear as Williams, Marquardt and Morris scored ten of the first twelve points, giving the Lions their largest lead at 48-35 just under four minutes into the frame. Spartans Head Coach Tobin Anderson then approached his bench and summoned freshman Adam Koziol (Charlotte, N.C.) who rewarded his coach's confidence by burying two straight three-pointers as STAC inched closer at 50-43 with 13:52 left to play. In fact, Koziol went on a 9-0 personal run that was surrounded by made free throws from the Lions to limit the damage for the moment.
Molloy led 58-46 with 10:31 to play following a Morris free throw, but East Coast Conference Preseason Player of the Year Chaz Watler (Brooklyn, N.Y.) woke from the slumber of only scoring two points in the first half. To the detriment of the maroon and white, Watler scored 11 of his team's next 13 points while on a 13-1 run to even the score at 59-all with 6:47 to play, shaking the rafters of a raucous Aquinas Hall in favor of the home team. Molloy recaptured the lead at 61-59 on a Marquardt lay-up, and free throws on both sides gave the Lions a two-point lead until a thunderous jam from Daniel Wilson (Baltimore, Md.) knotted the score up at 62 with five minutes to go in the game. The pendulum of momentum swung back and forth between the two sides as neither squad could get a clear lead until the 2:53 mark when Morris hit a fateful jumper to put the Lions ahead, 68-67.
It was then that Lawton hit a three-pointer and Koziol followed with a lay-up to put the Spartans up 72-68 with under two minutes remaining. Senior guard
Maurice Gatson (New York, N.Y.) hit back-to-back lay-ups around a two-pointer from Shaquille McFarlan (Mesic, N.C.) as the Lions found themselves down by two with 1:11 to go. STAC attempted to run the clock out and escape with the win but Morris contributed with a timely steal as the clock ticked down to 30 seconds remaining in the contest. Following a timeout, Morris received the rock and put home a lay-up to level the score with just 14 seconds remaining to set up the game's final possession. The hosts drew a play for Watler who drove inside with two seconds remaining, but a whistle was blown and a foul was called against the maroon and white. That sent the junior to the free throw line, where he had taken and made three free throws to that point but was an 80% shooter from the stripe going into the attempts. Watler calmly sank the front end, and then the second foul shot to give STAC a 76-74 lead. Molloy tried for one last ditch effort, but the Lions could not summon the Hill-to-Laettner type of heave necessary to get a game-tying shot off as the Spartans eked out the win.
Morris' 28 points came on a day when he shot 9-for-17 from the field and an even better mark (9-10) from the free throw line. The Amherst native also had a team-high six steals to go along with four rebounds and three assists. Marquardt hit 50% (6-12) of his field goals and was extremely effective from beyond the three-point arc in hitting four tries in five attempts. Off the bench, Gatson had eight points while Williams collected seven points in the starting line-up. The senior from Baldwin now has 949 points in his career, just 51 away from the 1,000-point plateau.
Saint Thomas Aquinas was led by Watler's brilliant second half as he collected 13 of his team-high 15 points in the final frame of action. The junior was 3-of-6 from the field and 5-for-5 from the free throw line, including the final two points of the day. Four other Spartans---Koziol, Lawton, McFarlan and Greenfield---had 11 points apiece while center Jules de Courtenay (Brisbane, Australia) had a dominant 10 rebounds off the bench in the win.
Molloy was minus-14 (37-23) in the rebounding category but plus-12 in the turnover battle, committing just 14 giveaways to 26 turnovers from STAC. The Lions were fine from the field in terms of shooting (42%, 26-62) but gave the Spartans too many opportunities from the field in the second half to come from down as many as 13 for the win. Saint Thomas Aquinas shot 58% (14-24) from the field over the last twenty minutes en route to a 25-48 (52%) outing that included a 62% (8-13) efficiency rating from three-point territory.
The Molloy College men's basketball team will continue its road trip on Wednesday (Dec. 16) by shuttling down to the University of the District of Columbia for a date with the Firebirds at 5 p.m.
